Category Archives: Amusing Shakespeare

Most Shakespeare is understandable by anyone and the humor present herein is of two kinds. One directly related ti the theme and content. The other has to do with the old but perfectly understandable language that carries an inherent charge of humor

Shakespeare on Love at First Sight, take 4

“O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought she purged the air of pestilence! That instant was I turn’d into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E’er since pursue me.” (Twelfth Night, act 1, sc. 1) Comments. A curious and original air-purifying effect of love at first sight. There are Read More

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Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra and a Romantic Greeting Liable to Misinterpretation

“…He’s speaking now, Or murmuring ‘Where’s my serpent of old Nile?’ (Antony and Cleopatra act 1, sc. 5) Comments.  Should you greet your girlfriend or significant other with “Where is my serpent of the Nile?” – or of the Potomac, the Missouri, Mississippi, Colorado river or equivalent – you should ensure that the said lady Read More

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Shakespeare on Cold Symptoms & Natural Remedies

 “Let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for my belly’s as cold as if I had swallowed snowballs for pills to cool the reins.” (Merry Wives of Windsor, act 3, sc. 5) Comments.  The cold season is on us – at least those of us in the Northern hemisphere. And the corporate Read More

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Shakespeare, Foul is Fair & Europe’s Nobel Peace Prize

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.” (Macbeth, act 1, sc. 1) Comments.   In 1985 Nobel decreed that the prize should be given to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies Read More

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Shakespeare, Unpleasant Company & the Presidential Debate

TIMON … mend my company, take away thyself. APEMANTUS. So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine. (Timon Of Athens, act 4, sc. 3) Comments.  Timon’s and Apemanutus’ exchange about each other’s company mirrors the feeling that many will have towards the ‘company’ presented by the protagonists of the imminent presidential debate. Read More

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Shakespeare, Autumn and Climate Change

“… The spring, the summer, The chiding autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted liveries; and the ‘mazed world, By their increase knows not which is which.” (Midsummer Night’s Dream act 2, sc. 1) Comments. After months of seemingly interminable dryness, rain has returned to Portland and to what Alistair Cook called “the damp England of Read More

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Shakespeare’s Warning against Marketing Lies

“…Let me have no lying: it becomes none but tradesmen” (Winter’s Tale, act 4, sc. 3) Comments.  Thinking that lying be amenable to curbing is senseless. Even politicians have found a set of Orwellian alternatives to the act of lying. Why condemn as a sin what is actually a virtue? In our post-industrial society of Read More

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Shakespeare on How to Get to a Girl’s Heart

 “Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces, Though ne’er so black, say they have angels’ faces.” (Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 3, sc. 1) Comments. On flattery there is general consensus, it works. Oscar Wilde succinctly proclaimed that “flattery is the infantry of negotiations.” And Ovid, in his ‘Art of Love’, vol. 2 writes, “…each Read More

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Shakespeare and the Public Relations Machine of Richard III

“Not dallying with a brace of courtezans, But meditating with two deep divines, Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.” (King Richard III, act 3, sc. 7) Comments. Italian writer and historian  Benedetto Croce said that all history is “contemporary history”. It means that history consists essentially in Read More

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Shakespeare on the Benefits of Wine, Laughter and a Sense of Humor

“…nor a man cannot make him laugh; but that’s no marvel, he drinks no wine.” (King Henry IV, part 1 act 4, sc. 3) Tips for Use. Comment on anyone impervious to humor or chide a first-time or born-again teetotaler. Equally, a good start for an after-dinner speech, especially if the wine was good or Read More

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